player plot interest check: real & half-real

[unsheathedfromreality]

Hello all!! I'm Lark, player of your local zalgo-corrupted elf-bird of many names, Illarion, and I am here with a PLAYER PLOT FOR YOU.

What's the Deal: During the fight against the Fated Leviathan, a terrible interaction between the titular beastie's reality-shifting and Illarion's own eldritch powers traps him and Sayo's consciousness in a pocket dimension, completely removed from Trench. Sayo's going to do her best to free them by claiming the powers of the Endless Witch through an improvised ritual, but only part-way succeeds: She escapes, but Illarion doesn't. Turns out the pocket dimension's part of him, and he's not easily disentangled from it.

He's going to need help getting back out.

The Plan: In April, Sayo will mobilize a rescue attempt to break back into the pocket dimension and successfully complete the ritual, so she can use Beatrice's magic to free Illarion. Characters will need to locate the pocket dimension and enter it, kill thirteen significant individuals, then set off a massive explosion. Simple, right? Except they'll have no more than 24 hours to find Illarion and another 24 to complete the whole ritual, so there won't be much time to scout or plan once they're in.

Fortunately, they'll have reconnaissance help from the inside--enough to formulate a reasonable assault plan before they ever have to break in. While Illarion can't communicate directly with Trench, his Omen Iskierka remains free and capable of hearing him. She'll be writing down his musings and observations from within the pocket dimension, as well as taking occasional letters to people he knows. Putting them all together will yield a wealth of information on their targets and conditions inside the pocket dimension.

The Pocket Dimension: Illarion's cozy little home for several weeks is based on his world, Nephele--albeit a twisted and awful version, heavily influenced by the eldritch entity that corrupted him and his people hundreds of years ago. It's locked in an endless, hopeless war of all-against-all, its inhabitants continually dying and returning only to kill each other all over again. It isn't a "real" alternate dimension, but an outgrowth of Illarion's Darkblood, soul, and memories that he's inextricably linked to. As such, while there's a lot of his home in there, there's also a lot of Trench and the Sleepers he knows from it, filling in the gaps where memory's failed him. Also there's so much Robinson Jeffers. Just an unbelievable amount.

Characters who enter the pocket dimension might end up resembling one of the sapient species that populate Nephele. In addition, magic may be altered to match the setting, and characters can gain magic they wouldn't otherwise have. That's to say: If you want, you can absolutely AU your guy to match the world.

Where You Come In: This is a hilariously ambitious plot that I'm also trying to make fit people's time and interest! So I'd like to gauge what everyone wants to do with it.

Ways to engage with the plot include:

1. Gathering Illarion's notes for information on conditions and NPCs inside the pocket dimension, in order to create a strategic plan for those who go into it,
2. Figuring out a means to locate and break into it, whether it's a blood-magic ritual, a technological terror machine, or some combination of both,
3. Helping carry out the ritual by killing thirteen people and blowing up a metaphysically significant part of the landscape. Kills will require a mix of combat prowess, sneaky assassination, and psychological manipulation.
 

The following links contain more information on Illarion's world and elements of the plot.

• Quickstart Guide - glossary and setting information, playable species, magic system, pocket dimension notes
• Dramatis Personae - the thirteen kill targets; cw: psychological horror, magical zombies (and corpse piles) in some fight descriptions
• Proposed Timeline - like it says on the tin

As you can see, this will be a lot of plot! What gets threaded is completely negotiable based on player interest and time. The core plot beats are in Act 3 (the Prince of Preservation and the Volkhv) and Act 4 (the King of Eyes, the Queen of Locusts, and destroying the Throne Above Thrones); player input will decide what else we tackle besides those.

In addition, if you don't have time or inclination to directly engage, no worries! Since this is as much about Illarion's CR as anything else, characters he knows will be getting letters from him and having dramatic influence on the appearance and contents of the plot setting.

The obligatory form! Please fill this sucker out to help me gauge player interest and appropriately scale the plot to what everyone wants to do. And, also, to know how many IC letters I get to write and what CR swag I can add to the set dressing. 8) For my own sanity, I'll be limiting the long-form letters to ~5, first-come first-served, though everyone who doesn't get a long-form letter will still get a comment on their letter's contents!

<b>Player name:</b> <b>Player contact:</b> (Lark works best with Discord.) <b>Character name:</b> <u><b>Participation</b></u> <b>Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension?</b> <b>Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion?</b> <b>Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets?</b> <b>If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out?</b> <b>What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in?</b> <u><b>Bonus content</b></u> <b>Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter?</b> <b>Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension?</b> <b>If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them?</b> The credits!! Immense props to Doom (Sayo) for helping develop this insane plot, Beth for being a sounding board and proofreader (and creating the plot that kicked all of this off), and Rona for concrit that massively improved this post and my documentation.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[unsheathedfromreality]

AU PLANNING ZONE

[unsheathedfromreality]

Ask questions about AUing your guys, or toss concepts up here to workshop!

Murderbot | The Murderbot Diaries

[sanctuarymoon]

SLAMS IN HERE.....

Player name: Rona
Player contact: Rona#7132
Character name: Murderbot*

* who does not have particularly close CR with Illarion, but who will follow Sayo into hell with very little prompting.

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? Murderbot will be interested in clues and strategy! It cannot help with reaching the dimension.
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? Yes! MEET "RIN" THE ROOT ORC. Being fully mammalian is going to SUCK and it will HATE THIS.
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? Yes! Murderbot is very tanky, such that it might have Relentless Endurance a magecraft ability to ignore disabling pain and keep fighting long past when it should have dropped. It's a squishy flesh creature now and won't measure up to the magically-capable fighters, but it will try its best.
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? Horny Prince fight because it'll be horrified! Bad mom fight because it glimpsed her in a memshare once! The gross zombie twofer fight because it's neat! Preservation because the depression powers would be super effective on Murderbot! Forlorn Hope to go down against a wave of zombies!
What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? ORC AU ORC AU

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? Not this character.
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? Not this character.
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? Not this character.

Edit: OH NO I HAVE TWO CHARACTERS WHO'D BE INTO THIS if Murderbot goes, Jod will stay, and vice versa. We'll leave it up to the pressures of their respective close CR.

[unsheathedfromreality]

BRING ME: MURDERBOT ORC. (really sorry about that horny prince fight)

Also, let me introduce you to one of Nephele's military mage classes: The bulwark! Very tanky, great at taking hits, skin can't be pierced. Can get in trouble if you need to like, surgically repair 'em (since you cannot open them with scalpels), but they're very durable. Although I ALSO love the notion of Relentless Endurance to just go beyond what's physically advisable the same way the undead do... Both very good options for a tanky friend.

Also if you want to give Murderbot EVEN MORE ENDURANCE I've probably got a Court-gift option around here that would fit it.

Illarion's Least Favorite Guy | The Locked Tomb

[necrolord]

Player name: Rona
Player contact: Rona#7132
Character name: Eyes The Emperor of the Nine Houses (Jod)*

* whom Illarion would rather walk into the sea than get rescued by, probably, but he now lives with Kaworu and Paul and plays D&D with Sayo so it's IMMENSELY likely he'll get involved.

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? Jod can be useful in breaching reality to access the pocket dimension! This directly relates to his current Arcane Scholar research.
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? PERHAPS... I would love for this to happen, but by default he'd hang back. Also he skews party balance like fuck.
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? Even if he comes along, he'll make the kids do all the work. Consider him your designated deus ex memelord... a backline cleric dialing it in
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? Interested in the vampires (Joy). Interested in gaslight gatekeep girlboss mom (could romance be in the air????). Interested in the gross zombie duo and/or Forlorn Hope bc his powerset might be super-effective, also Forlorn Hope just kind of pisses him off for no reason. Wants to bro it up with the super-lich, that guy seems neat (hostile). Should not be allowed to talk to Eyes.
What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? He's highly interested in research and lore, as he believes there's a lot he can learn from Illarion's world and magic system. Give him all your secrets, Illarion, surely this is a dude who should have them.

Relatedly he'd be strolling in as a TERRIFYINGLY HIGH-POWERED PRINCE so that's fine. (Prince of Resurrection! Prince-gift is puppeting and fleshcraft of bodies both living and dead, so he can still act as healer and bones guy. Also, to translate The Wife Situation, he's a shrike with a fuckoff horrifying degree of attunement to a Pillar of the World. It's fine.)

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? Ok but would he ever be THAT desperate?
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? y e s
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? you know the character, go wild

[unsheathedfromreality]

PLEASE DO NOT BECOME ILLARION'S STEP-DAD THAT IS EVEN WORSE THAN ANYTHING ELSE YOU COULD DO TO HIM

Also per discussion I'm tossing both MB & the Emperor on The List to see what party comp starts shaking out like... But I love some of the options we've been talking about per what happens if he stays home instead, hoho.

also consider Illarion writes him a letter but it's on day 40 of horse plinko and it's just a list of reasons why Monarchs suck, including you, Mr. Jod

Paul Atreides | Dune

[terriblepurpose]

Player name: Beth
Player contact: terriblepurpose#0419
Character name: Paul Atreides

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? Paul would help with finding the notes and breaking into the dimension, but maybe this time leaves the strategy to anyone else!
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? Yes, and behold: a fledgling shrike.
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? Yes.
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? Domnika Cor Hydrae, Prince of Preservation and Esfir, King of Eyes, basically let's get into the family drama of it all. I'd like to thread out the emotional beats in particular, and possibly Paul demonstrating fun assassination techniques.
What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? Maybe exploring the essence of Princedom and, of course, showing Paul more cool weapons he will think about responsibly.

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? Yes, please. (Possibly a joint letter to him and Kaworu.) EXPLAIN YOURSELF MERLINUS
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? Yes.
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? Blue-on-blue eyes, tides and tidal imagery, lunar and stellar imagery (especially pulsars), anything about Paul that would make Illarion just super happy and not at all concerned to see

[unsheathedfromreality]

Illarion and his baby shrikes... gosh...

Also since I'm going through and tagging these all now, even though we've also been chatting about this elsewhere: The implications of Paul demonstrating a cool assassination technique on either Illarion's mom or his (almost-)wife are GREAT.

kaworu nagisa | evangelion

[peripheries]

Player name: Ru
Player contact: trevelyan#6066
Character name: Kaworu Nagisa (Tabris)

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? I GUESS. Actually, no, Kaworu would be obsessive about this and devote his entire waking hours to it.
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? YES. I don't know about changing form because he has hang ups about that... but maybe... little sonboy shrike.
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? Yes... Let him use his powers for danger and see what a scary motherfucker he can be.
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? Domnika Cor Hydrae... fuck him up fam. Esfir Daughter-of-the-Bier... I want the Illarion family drama please. Let him know what he's gotten himself into.
What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? HUGS. Running, jumping reunification hugs. Also what if there was a weapon like the Lance of Longinus that can pierce AT Fields and kill angels!! What if!! Paul doesn't get all the good weapons!

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? YES. He can share it with Paul though. I guess. 😒
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? YES.
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? Angel wings, the seashore, the Seele Logo, big glowing crosses, little birds... Otherwise themes of identity, curiosity, personhood the dark depths of the ocean, sea water, eyes

[unsheathedfromreality]

SONBOY SHRIKE WOULD BE SO CUTE... But I also love Original Flavor Sonboy just shredding things as the eldritch abomination he's meant to be. he's an angel of what everyone would say, while he is ruining things.

Also:
1. You are ON for flying leap hugs, Kaworu is getting hugged the instant he appears.

2. I'm gonna say the Blade of Sacrifice can pierce AT Fields since it already is an angel-killing weapon!! Please do not stand in front of the Prince of the Forlorn Hope, where he can see you. (He's got a lot of practice at killing angels.)

Oscar Pine | RWBY

[justoscar]

Player name: Basil
Player contact: woodrifting#1342 on Discord
Character name: Oscar Pine

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? Oscar is interested in helping and strategizing if someone asks him to, but he's got no way to help with the interdimensional stuff.
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? sure!
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? not necessarily! Oscar isn't much of a fighter by default.
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? tba
What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? i really want folks to learn more about Oscar's own eldritch nature. Perhaps he's also a tiny fluffy shrike?

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? not necessarily!
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? not necessarily! But, it could be fun...
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? Oscar has major themes of finding his own individuality while coping with being subsumed into a collective that will ultimately change him in canon. Trench is the only place he can guarantee his individuality. Per canon, his colors are green and orange and he's got farmy or clockwork vibes.

Per game canon, his own choices have had him developing bird motifs, specifically owls.

I am open to workshoping this!

[unsheathedfromreality]

claps!! I do like the notion of Oscar as a shrike, and we can absolutely use that AU to give him some magic that could also help with investigative and/or psychological aspects of the plot versus the fighty ones. Do you have a notion of some things he'd be good at/you'd enjoy doing with him in that respect?

I'm also totally down to people just sort of poking into background lore/picking stuff up in the aftermaths of fights, too, since probably figuring out how this pocket dimension even happened... may be useful for future Sleeper stuff.

Fern | Adventure Time

[laminae]

Player name: Pan
Player contact: diremuta @ plurk, pan#2663 on discord
Character name: Fern

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? Sure! He has lots of experience busting through dimensions so this isn't new to him. He also has the Enchiridion which in itself is a portal.
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? Yessss.
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? Sure, Fern is very good at killing things, especially things that normally can't be killed by traditional weaponry.
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? Maybe the Princes of Biding/Sacrifice because swords, Forlorn Hope because again swords, Prince of Thundering because plant people like we discussed? And Preservation because sad dad issues.

Happy to handwave anything that needs handwaving as well as threading things out! I am very easygoing.
What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? Anything! Shrike Fern?? Feathers instead of grass?? I don't know.

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? Absolutely!
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? SUre.
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? Anything plantlike, especially vines and flowers. Octopi, spiders and spiderwebs (especially green ones) are cues for Grass Demon, and swords, blue butterflies and to a lesser extent bears are cues for Finn. The Grass Sword and Finn Sword are also good cues - especially both of them together, because duality is a big part of Fern's character.

[unsheathedfromreality]

LIL UNDEAD SHRIKESON!!

So legit I may actually have the Blade of Sacrifice look like the Finn Sword because turns out: I don't want to think too hard about what it looks like in canon right now, lol. So a part of you gets slapped on the god-killing weapon, Fern!

We'll also be sure to have some plant people interludes with the Prince of Thundering... they're fun plants...

[hacktivated]

Player name: Kei
Player contact: kikeito#7904
Character name: Penny Polendina

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? No.

Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? Yes!

Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? Yes!

If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? I can throw her at any, but especially Prince of Noon (she can fly, the airship doesn't have shit on her) and Kel (she has elemental magic and may be useful for breaking his phylactery)! I'd be more interested in playing out character interactions than blow-by-blow descriptions of the fights, but I'm fine either way.

What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? N/A

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? No
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? No
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? N/A

[unsheathedfromreality]

YES, GOOD. Getting people onto the airship in the first place will require a smidge of doing, so having flighted characters will be fantastic for it.

I love elemental powers to destroy the glacier, too; I feel blessed we're getting options for tackling that. That'll be a fun one if we go for it!

[cryptograms]

Player name: Kei
Player contact: kikeito#7904
Character name: Stanford Pines

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? Yes! Ford is all about research and digging into strange magical and metaphysical topics so he'll be well-suited to this particular task! Ford also has canon experience in breaking through from one dimension to another. Once he knows they won't be trying to completely exit Trench and are just trying to access a pocket dimension inside it he can be easily convinced to help.

Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? No
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? N/A
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? N/A
What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? N/A

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? Nope
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? Nope
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? N/A

[unsheathedfromreality]

Bless you, Ford, for your help with the portal.

We'll keep you safely away from the charismatic godlike weirdo with the eye theme.

[eudaimonikos]

Player name: Lu
Player contact: goldfinch#4530
Character name: Michael

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension?
Sure! Michael is extremely familiar with pocket dimensions and traveling between them; they're pretty standard in the afterlife.

Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion?
Yes!

Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets?
Michael's not necessarily a fighter, but I think he could help against a few of these, sure! He's an excellent liar and - if he maintains his current form and doesn't go weird? not sure - good at pretending to be a harmless old man, so he might actually have better luck with assassination. He definitely does know how to execute a quick and clean kill.

If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out?
Domnika - Michael has something of his own history with manipulating people into turning against each other and gaslighting them into misery! He knows this playbook!

Prince of Preservation - again, Michael has been all about studying people in order to make them miserable via exploiting their emotional flaws before. Also, he's probably got a buff against being driven insane by seeing a shrike go psycho form, given that his own species isn't particularly three-dimensional.

Ice Lich - Michael is a giant squid with a fire aura who is extremely suited to melting a glacier

What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in?
I THINK Michael cannot turn into a native-style demon without just totally losing his mind, so probably not that. Maybe a shrike transformation (he will try to stuff all of the new wings and shit inside his suit where they BELONG) or maybe the Prince of the Good Place (name very much pending)??? He could def be considered the Prince of Heaven but I have not thought that through clearly yet. Also if he does see a native demon trying to harm someone he will lose his goddamn mind about it.

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? Sure!
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? Sure!
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? Blue fire, cacti, cuttlefish eyes

[unsheathedfromreality]

I LOVE ALL OF THIS BUT ALSO, the fabulous Echo (who's responsible for Admiral Lankhet) suggested that Michael would be a shoe-in for a Sea Person since he's a) ancient and b) full of tentacles. I don't have them written up at present (since I wasn't planning on them) but they are giant sapient sea slugs.

On the other hand I DO love the idea of the fire squid getting rid of the glacier, or baseline Michael just being oh hey buddies at all the shrikes hanging around him. Totally agree he'd be resistant to immune to their madness incitement ability, since that's really supposed to hit people who do not live in quite so many dimensions. And I could see him as a Prince if you want to AU it! Lots of options to hash out.

Ruby Rose | RWBY

[onekindsoul]

Player name: Josh
Player contact: jjabarrett#9701
Character name: Ruby Rose

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? No
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? Yes
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? Yes
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? Prince of Noon or Kel. She will likely be teaming up with Penny for this.
What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? Would be interested in having Ruby form a contract with an angel as she is descended from the God of Light in her own canon. She might do some sort of magecraft of hope too.
She'll likely be forming a team consisting of Herself, Oscar, Ange and Penny. Team ROAP.

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? No.
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? No
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? No

[unsheathedfromreality]

YEEHAW this all sounds fantastic to me!! And I don't have a contact for Ange's player (I don't think), so if you'd like to hit 'em up to point them this way, if they will be coming along...

Also yes, PLEASE do an angel contract. I have, [throws open trenchcoat] many fine options for angels that can be found throughout the setting so we can definitely set her up with something fun. Alternately we DO need people to contract with Angels of Sacrifice for explosion purposes, and Sacrifice's Court-gift is kinda neat in how it works (it is not just explosions).

And HMM what would you be thinking with her for magecraft?

[grandtheftperson]

Player name: Rune
Player contact: u know where 2 find me
Character name: Lahabrea nee Thancred

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? He could possibly be willing.
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? Sure.
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? Yep.
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? I have no specified interest, I am willing to thread things but you know how slow I can get. :D
What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? IDK.

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? If he'd like to.
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? Sure, but this could go badly.
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? Fire, deformed phoenixes. Weird shadows, burning shadows, embers in places of deep darkness, smoldering flames here and there without consuming the environment, presences that shouldn't be there but are and have a sense of always being there. More fire. Odd bits of ice in places they don't belong.

Lahabrea is not going to be AUing but he is going to be doing his best to blend in as if he were part of the setting, and he is very adaptable in this regard. He's had twelve thousand years of experience.. but on a very different planet. There will however be mistakes; he's unfamiliar with the setting and doesn't quite grasp the way magic works in it. He bleeds into the surroundings in strange ways that are oddly ignorable if someone's not paying attention but as soon as someone is..

Well. He's not what he's trying to appear to be, but that's standard for all shrikes, isn't it?

[unsheathedfromreality]

Lahabrea pretending to be a shrike and not quite getting it right is going to make me laugh forever and I'm extremely here for it.

Also I'm currently doing up a list of what fights everyone wants to do... and if there's something no one's really big on I could definitely see him getting a solo mission to put that horrible power to use. >) In a totally deniable way.

[enblightened]

Player name: alba
Player contact: Alba#4125
Character name: Bigby

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? HECK YEAH
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? you know bigby is gonna rip things apart trying to find his elfbirdboy pal okay
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? Heck yeah
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? Prince of Preservation is definitely at the top of Bigby's interest. I'd be down to have him join in that one, and he can be handwaved wherever else but probably not the one that needs assassination because he's not very good at that!!
What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? HONESTLY as long as Bigby can be part of the team to find Illarion I will be super happy with that because he'll be extremely upset at his missing.

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? you know i do
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? SURE
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? Chains, padlocks, the occasional broken test tube, moonlight, at least one broken key.

[unsheathedfromreality]

GRIPS BIGBY DELIGHTEDLY, I am so happy to have him along. He's on team "instantly get hugged" because Illarion will have missed him SO MUCH.

Also weeps a little because in better times Bigby and Preservation would absolute have gotten along as pals, gentlemen and scholars that they are (and Illarion will write that in his letter, for extra irony!!). Gentlemen and scholars...who went a little too far...and paid the Price... That's gonna be a brutal fight.

Chara | Undertale

[the_obedient_servant]

Player name: Kai
Player contact: ectoplasmfear#9086
Character name: Chara Dreemurr

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? All of the above. They don't really know this man but it seems like an interesting venture at least, and Sayo is their friend along with several people involved.
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? Yep! They represent a function of an indie RPG, they can do this.
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? Yes.
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? The Prince of Noon (It's a nerd off), Domnika and The King of Eyes would all be very interesting.
What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? Some kind of way to show the eldritch world eating monstrosity that Chara's deeply corrupted soul has turned them into. In terms of AU species, Undread Shrike is what I was thinking.

Also Chara getting fucked up death magic that mainly works when used for support would be good. Heal you with the power of being a hater, analyze enemy abilities with the power of wishing you were died.

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? No need.
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? Uhhh... I mean, I'd be into it.
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? Golden flowers, red pixelated hearts, knives, =) as an expression... the deltarune symbol. There's a lot.

[unsheathedfromreality]

HECK yeah undead doom bird squad grows!!

Also I love this flavor of death magic! I'm thinking very hard about how one could get effort magic going like that. One potential option would be a shrike-specific one--they can actually, with a loooot of practice, gain a measure of control over their corruption-shedding ability, and the whole flavor of the pillars is "they hate reality and want to destroy it". So in this case I could see something like, Chara gains the ability to see how to take things apart via that ability (analysis) but can also stuff zalgo into people or objects, corrupting them but also coincidentally "mending" them... in a way that will surely not have terrible side effects later. (8 How's that sound?

[imaglyphwitch]

Player name: Pedro
Player contact: elpedrososama#0238
Character name: Luz Noceda

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? I could see Luz likely trying to help find the notes!
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? Yes! She'll likely answer the call when Sayo asks for help in getting him out. She's sadly not met Illarion yet!
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? Yes.
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? I'd have Luz take on Esfir and later Lankhet.
What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? I'm going to play Luz as a root Orc, so she'll definitely be adjusting to being more on the stronger, bulkier side than her willowy, long limbed self. She'll have camouflaged spots though, since she'll still be on the younger side.

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? I'm assuming he wouldn't since he wouldn't know her too well?
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? Yup!
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? Luz's symbols tend to revolve around three things specifically: light (her namesake), wolves (the animal she identifies most with lately) and an owl, this being a reminder of Owlbert, her teacher's Palisman, and the Owl House itself.

[unsheathedfromreality]

Orc Luz!! I love that for her. Also, I'm apologizing to her in advance for how much parts of this might suck, LOL. Did you have any notion what you might want to do with her magic-wise, or leave that up to nearer the time of plot start?

[droptheious]

Player name: TF
Player contact: teefflady#2361
Character name: Varian

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? SURE! Varian has canonical knowledge of pocket dimensions and much like Ford, once he knows they don't want to break OUT of Trench, he'll be happy to put that knowledge to good use.
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? Nah, he'll stay on the other side to make sure nothing goes wrong.
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? Nope
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out?
What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? FRIENDSHIP! PORTALS! All that good stuff.

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? SURE
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? I thiiink Varian has close enough CR for this?
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? General steampunky things, a major one would be this unbreakable amber, which grows like gnarled roots everywhere. FUN.

[unsheathedfromreality]

First: Varian we will try very hard to keep your boyfriend safe even if he will be Already Died when he steps into the pocket dimension, sorry about that. 8(

Second: HECK YEAH, Varian on the portal team!! I am very hype for that.

Also I love the look of the thorny unbreakable amber, that's going everywhere you'd normally find brambles and will be Fine and Good.

[spiritwalks]

Player name: Jansen
Player contact: Jansen#8997
Character name: Vyng

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? He could help find notes, for sure. Strategy is best left to others. I'm going to be honest and admit that the ritual would likely be biting off more than I can chew right now. The logistics get even more complicated because he's got a full ttrpg party of castmates, and so he's ICly less inclined to run off on his own for something like this.
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? See above. If there aren't enough volunteers (and he's not responsible for forming strategy), he could potentially step in, though.
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? He's not big on killing unless backed into a corner, so probably not.
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? N/A.
What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? N/A

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? Ye!
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? Nah, that's fine.

[unsheathedfromreality]

Heck yeah!! Delighted to have Vyng along on this in whatever capacity (and totally understand the complex CR circle making "running off alone" infeasible).

I am hoping to have a master notes post up within the next few days that I'll link to everyone interested in discovering those!

gideon nav | the locked tomb | fashionably late

[lipochrome]

cannot believe i never posted here, whoops!

Player name: floral
Player contact: floral#1370
Character name: gideon nav

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? gideon is not especially a strategist, but she can encourage people to make moves that are DUMB and RISKY and COOL AS HELL (ie: why shouldn't we take a field trip to hell? that's probably fine. maybe we will get a t shirt). sorry your bird dad is missing guys :( he seemed nice :(
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? yes!!
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? yeah i'm good with any of them but i am especially eyes emoji at: thundering (hngh cool orc), esfir (this would be to make the world's worst 'hey dude you got a hot wife' jokes), king of eyes (Ha Ha I Wonder Who This Guy Is Like), biding/sacrifices (idk i just think they're neat)
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? any of the above!! i'm down to do a decent amount of handwaving tbh, rl circumstances have made my tagging availability on the spotty side for march-april. given that, if there are people who actually CAN tag and certain fights are getting crowded, pls slot them in before me! i'm j chilling

What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? i can't think of any atm but this is rad as hell, ty for organizing!! EDIT: i remembered half-orc gideon au... i think that was the au brought up like weeks ago??? still very here for that

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? nah unless you really want to write one!
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? sure why not
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? sunflowers/sunlight, grinning skulls, swords, (sick) fire(s bro), non-rotting or otherwise incorruptible bodies

[unsheathedfromreality]

holds out my arms, here we EMBRACE fashionable lateness!! And I am so delighted to have Gideon along!

Also YEAH we did discuss some hybrid orc shenanigans for her! I think what we'd talked about was her being a shrikeblooded orc, which means practically she looks like most every other orc (with bonus options for odd coloration), but she'd get a tick of "weird eldritch influence/periodically sees Unusual Things" because her dad's a shrike. which, like, does parallel Gideon's parental situation very well, imo. 8)

[hearthebell]

Player name: Lexil
Player contact: Discord at ladylazarus#2235
Character name: L Lawliet (but Lazarus Sauveterre to basically everyone here)

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? Yep! Absolutely. I am thinking that analysis will be L's strong suit here for reasons I probably don't have to get into.
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? I'm open to this, but I think realistically he would be the spindly fragile guy who doesn't selfishly become a liability so he can become part of the action. There's a caveat here if someone wants to make him an Ironman suit or something.
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? I think that it's important that L draws a line at directly murdering people! He'd see the necessity of the deaths but not want to be directly involved.
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? N/A
What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? L's fluent in an ancient and powerful blood magic language he picked up in Trench and he uses it as a focus for blood magic. I'd loooove an excuse to use that.

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? Yes!!!
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? I'm absolutely up for that.
If yes, what are some themes, symbols, or other visual cues to signify them? L's world is one of fake plants, tile and steel, glowing screens and the dismal touch of rain. The shinigami who killed him's glowing yellow eyes; sweet things, apples, the color white, the color blue, the letter L in a cloister black font.

[unsheathedfromreality]

I do love me an L 8D Just posting to show I've seen this one and we've talked on Discord and you have the master note post!

Izuku "Deku" Midoriya | My Hero Academia

[wannasmash]

Player name: Tea
Player contact: TeaMergency#8071
Character name: Izuku "Deku" Midoriya / full!AU name TBD

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? Get a note, handwave a little combat strat perhaps! Other PCs are free to take advice from Deku's skillset of hand-to-hand combat, teamwork, and rescue. He will advise killing only as a last resort, but he won't get a say in the matter once we're in.
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? Yes
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? Yes
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? Since I'm late, I will defer to people already participating and thread if they'd like a Deku or handwave if everyone's handwaving.
-Hope (magically-controlled automatons useful here?)
-Esfir (we love Deku vs. sniper + the inherent drama of a wife? ex??)
-Domnika Cor Hydrae (Deku + mom themes! and protecting bystanders)
-Eyes (maybe. since I covered Deku in -eyes- that one time)

What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in?
-Get arrival and immediate AUing onscreen lol
-Grand theft airship sounds fun?
-I'm mostly here to give Deku an IC crash course on Illarion's backstory he will get very emotional about, as well as
-facilitate his CR's arcs if any.
-Anything touching on rising above one's birth, creative problem-solving via combat strategy, heroism, kindness, and self-sacrifice (but no death, I'm still doing my no-death run lmao).
-Killing is on the table, especially to save another.

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? Are these the notes? If yes, I will throw a blurb of Deku claiming one.
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? No

Kokichi Oma | Danganronpa | latest ever

[violetlies]

Player name: Tulip
Player contact: ♡ Tulip ♡#6969
Character name: Kokichi Oma

Participation
Do you want your character to help find Illarion's notes, help with pre-mission strategy, and/or devise a way to break into the pocket dimension? The strategy sounds like it'd fit him best, tbh, but I'll defer to others with expertise
Do you want your character to enter the pocket dimension and help rescue Illarion? Yes.
Do you want your character involved in fights against the kill targets? Maaaaybe? He's not the most combat ready yet but give the nerd a gun
If so, which fights are you most interested in? How much do you want to handwave vs thread out? ....I honest to God can't say. They all do sound interesting, but, uh. Kokichi is late as fuck and also highly unprepared. Sooooooo ymmv.
What other plot beats not covered here are you interested in? Admittedly, I'm getting here last minute, so this is starting CR with a bit and also because Kokichi's CR with Sayo to begin with is so incredibly strong on sight. So honestly, I'll be grateful for whatever I can get involved in. <3

Bonus content
Do you want Illarion to write your character a letter? Probably not.
Do you want your character to have visible influence on the pocket dimension? Considering I'm so late, probably not.